Arcade Al wroteI think my issue is that high quality modern locks are relatively affordable - whereas older locks are either very expensive, or very basic and low quality (that’s a generalisation I know but hopefully people will see what I mean). So I like decent locks that are affordable, and they just so happen to be the modern ones.
I would disagree on this point. The locks I see out there in the last 30 years for sale are fall into two categories:
A) Cheap, artsy, low quality.
B) Quality, well built, older design that hasn’t been touched, expensive.
There are some in between but not much.
Lock makers have been merging together in BIG multinational companies for the last 100 years and there are MUCH fewer lock makers. I don’t think we get better things from less different makers. The only good news is that there are a few lock makers have gone into business in the last few decades that are innovating.
As for older locks I think a good portion are a steal. A good deal of the locks made 70+ years ago that are just now being taken off doors and sold are well made to have lasted this long. Unit locks more so. If you adjust for the value of the currency of today to when the lock was made you will see that these locks were expensive then and are cheaper now. Yes this doesn’t help us collectors get more locks in our collections but it does explain a few things.
Arcade Al wrote
I think it’s probably fair to say that the Cold War had a significant effect on the availability of lower priced, higher quality locking systems - and if not lower priced then definitely more readily available?
I am not sure that the cold war had much effect on lock design outside cutting off parts of the world from each other and all that entails. The design does have effect on the cost to make and the metals needed are affected by war. All you have to do is look at the V keys made during 1940s. So in some small way the cold war would have an affect in that respect.
My view is that some manufactures of today are hearing the bottom line in some cases. They make the cheap POS that is venereal engineered as I find no value in it and find it a disease in everything you can buy. My father was an engineer that would design process for low defect in a product. He told me 30 years ago that most younger engineer design in a failure in certain time/use frame. It fails they sell more…. disposable. It really started around about 1950 and expanded. I just wish they would make things of metal so I can toss it in the scrap bin to recycle.
In a word of what I find missing: Craftmanship
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